And the word _profane_, is usually taken in the Scripture for the same

with _common_; and consequently their contraries, _holy_ and _proper_,

in the kingdom of God, must be the same also. But figuratively, those

men also are called _holy_, that led such godly lives, as if they had

forsaken all worldly designs, and wholly devoted and given themselves to

God. In the proper sense, that which is made _holy_ by God’s

appropriating or separating it to his own use, is said to be

_sanctified_ by God, as the seventh day in the fourth commandment; and

as the elect in the New Testament were said to be _sanctified_, when

they were endued with the spirit of godliness. And that which is made

_holy_ by the dedication of men, and given to God, so as to be used only

in his public service, is called also SACRED, and said to be

consecrated, as temples, and other houses of public prayer, and their

utensils, priests, and ministers, victims, offerings, and the external

matter of sacraments.

[Sidenote: Degrees of sanctity.]

Of _holiness_ there be degrees: for of those things that are set apart

for the service of God, there may be some set apart again, for a nearer

and more especial service. The whole nation of the Israelites were a

people holy to God; yet the tribe of Levi was amongst the Israelites a

holy tribe; and amongst the Levites, the priests were yet more holy; and

amongst the priests, the high-priest was the most holy. So the land of

Judea was the Holy Land; but the holy city wherein God was to be

worshipped, was more holy; and again the Temple more holy than the city,

and the _sanctum sanctorum_ more holy than the rest of the Temple.

[Sidenote: Sacrament.]

A SACRAMENT, is a separation of some visible thing from common use; and

a consecration of it to God’s service, for a sign either of our

admission into the kingdom of God, to be of the number of his peculiar

people, or for a commemoration of the same. In the Old Testament, the

sign of admission was _circumcision_; in the New Testament, _baptism_.

The commemoration of it in the Old Testament, was the _eating_, at a

certain time which was anniversary, of the _Paschal Lamb_; by which they

were put in mind of the night wherein they were delivered out of their

bondage in Egypt; and in the New Testament, the celebrating of the

_Lord’s Supper_; by which, we are put in mind of our deliverance from

the bondage of sin, by our blessed Saviour’s death upon the cross. The

sacraments of _admission_, are but once to be used, because there needs

but one _admission_; but because we have need of being often put in mind

of our deliverance, and of our allegiance, the sacraments of

_commemoration_ have need to be reiterated. And these are the principal

sacraments, and as it were the solemn oaths we make of our allegiance.

There be also other consecrations, that may be called sacraments, as the

word implieth only consecration to God’s service; but as it implies an

oath, or promise of allegiance to God, there were no other in the Old

Testament, but _circumcision_, and the _passover_; nor are there any

other in the New Testament, but _baptism_ and the _Lord’s Supper_.

-------

CHAPTER XXXVI.

OF THE WORD OF GOD, AND OF PROPHETS.

[Sidenote: Word, what.]

When there is mention of the _word of God_, or of _man_, it doth not

signify a part of speech, such as grammarians call a noun, or a verb, or

any simple voice, without a contexture with other words to make it

significative; but a perfect speech or discourse, whereby the speaker

_affirmeth_, _denieth_, _commandeth_, _promiseth_, _threateneth_,

_wisheth_, or _interrogateth_. In which sense it is not _vocabulum_,

that signifies a _word_; but _sermo_, (in Greek λόγος) that is, some

_speech_, _discourse_, or _saying_.

[Sidenote: The words spoken by God, and concerning God, both are called

God’s word in Scripture.]

Again, if we say the _word of God_, or of _man_, it may be understood

sometimes of the speaker: as the words that God hath spoken, or that a

man hath spoken; in which sense, when we say, the Gospel of St. Matthew,

we understand St. Matthew to be the writer of it: and sometimes of the

subject; in which sense, when we read in the Bible, _the words of the

days of the kings of Israel, or Judah_, it is meant, that the acts that

were done in those days, were the subject of those words; and in the

Greek, which, in the Scripture, retaineth many Hebraisms, by the word of

God is oftentimes meant, not that which is spoken by God, but concerning

God, and his government; that is to say, the doctrine of religion:

insomuch, as it is all one, to say λόγος Θεοῦ, and _theologia_; which

is, that doctrine which we usually call _divinity_, as is manifest by

the places following, (_Acts_ xiii. 46) _Then Paul and Barnabas waxed

bold, and said, it was necessary that the word of God should first have

been spoken to you, but seeing you put it from you, and judge yourselves

unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles_. That which

is here called the word of God, was the doctrine of Christian religion;

as it appears evidently by that which goes before. And (_Acts_ v. 20)

where it is said to the apostles by an angel, _Go stand and speak in the

Temple, all the words of this life_; by the words of this life, is

meant, the doctrine of the Gospel; as is evident by what they did in the

Temple, and is expressed in the last verse of the same chapter, _Daily

in the Temple, and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach

Christ Jesus_: in which place it is manifest, that Jesus Christ was the

subject of this _word of life_; or, which is all one, the subject of the

_words of this life eternal_, that our Saviour offered them. So (_Acts_

xv. 7) the word of God, is called _the word of the Gospel_, because it

containeth the doctrine of the kingdom of Christ; and the same word

(_Rom._ x. 8, 9) is called _the word of faith_; that is, as is there

expressed, the doctrine of Christ come, and raised from the dead. Also

(_Matth._ xiii. 19) _When any one heareth the word of the kingdom_; that

is, the doctrine of the kingdom taught by Christ. Again, the same word,

is said (_Acts_ xii. 24) _to grow and to be multiplied_; which to

understand of the evangelical doctrine is easy, but of the voice or

speech of God, hard and strange. In the same sense (_1 Tim._ iv. 1) the

_doctrine of devils_ signifieth not the words of any devil, but the

doctrine of heathen men concerning _demons_, and those phantasms which

they worshipped as gods.

[Sidenote: The word of God metaphorically used, first, for the decrees

and power of God.]

Considering these two significations of the WORD OF GOD, as it is taken

in Scripture, it is manifest in this latter sense, where it is taken for

the doctrine of Christian religion, that the whole Scripture is the word

of God: but in the former sense, not so. For example, though these

words, _I am the Lord thy God, &c._ to the end of the Ten Commandments,

were spoken by God to Moses; yet the preface, _God spake these words and

said_, is to be understood for the words of him that wrote the holy

history. The _word of God_, as it is taken for that which he hath

spoken, is understood sometimes _properly_, sometimes _metaphorically_.

_Properly_, as the words he hath spoken to his prophets:

_metaphorically_, for his wisdom, power, and eternal decree, in making

the world; in which sense, those fiats, _Let there be light_, _Let there

be a firmament_, _Let us make man, &c._ (_Gen._ i.) are the word of God.

And in the same sense it is said (_John_ i. 3) _All things were made by

it, and without it was nothing made that was made_: and (_Heb._ i. 3)

_He upholdeth all things by the word of his power_; that is, by the

power of his word; that is, by his power: and (_Heb._ xi. 3) _The worlds

were framed by the word of God_; and many other places to the same

sense: as also amongst the Latins, the name of _fate_, which signified

properly _the word spoken_, is taken in the same sense.

[Sidenote: Secondly, for the effect of his word.]

Secondly, for the effect of his word; that is to say, for the thing

itself, which by his word is affirmed, commanded, threatened, or

promised; as (_Psalm_ cv. 19) where Joseph is said to have been kept in

prison, _till his word was come_; that is, till that was come to pass

which he had foretold to Pharaoh’s butler (_Gen._ xl. 13) concerning his

being restored to his office: for there, by _his word was come_, is

meant, the thing itself was come to pass. So also (_1 Kings_ xviii. 36)

Elijah saith to God, _I have done all these thy words_, instead of _I

have done all these things at thy word_, or commandment; and (_Jer._

xvii. 15) _Where is the word of the Lord_, is put for, _Where is the

evil he threatened_. And (_Ezek._ xii. 28) _There shall none of my words

be prolonged any more_: by _words_ are understood those _things_, which

God promised to his people. And in the New Testament (_Matth._ xxiv. 35)

_heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away_;

that is, there is nothing that I have promised or foretold, that shall

not come to pass. And in this sense it is, that St. John the Evangelist,

and, I think, St. John only, calleth our Saviour himself as in the flesh

_the word of God_, as (_John_ i. 14) _the word was made flesh_; that is

to say, the word, or promise that Christ should come into the world;

_who in the beginning was with God_; that is to say, it was in the

purpose of God the Father, to send God the Son into the world, to

enlighten men in the way of eternal life; but it was not till then put

in execution, and actually incarnate. So that our Saviour is there

called the _word_, not because he was the promise, but the thing

promised. They that taking occasion from this place, do commonly call

him the verb of God, do but render the text more obscure. They might as

well term him the noun of God: for as by _noun_, so also by _verb_, men

understand nothing but a part of speech, a voice, a sound, that neither

affirms, nor denies, nor commands, nor promiseth, nor is any substance

corporeal, or spiritual; and therefore it cannot be said to be either

God, or man; whereas our Saviour is both. And this _word_, which St.

John in his gospel saith was with God, is (in his _first Epistle_, verse

1) called the _word of life_; and (verse 2) _the eternal life, which was

with the Father_. So that he can be in no other sense called the _word_,

than in that, wherein he is called eternal life; that is, _he that hath

procured us eternal life_, by his coming in the flesh. So also

(_Apocalypse_ xix. 13) the apostle speaking of Christ, clothed in a

garment dipped in blood, saith, his name is _the word of God_; which is

to be understood, as if he had said his name had been, _He that was come

according to the purpose of God from the beginning, and according to his

word and promises delivered by the prophets_. So that there is nothing

here of the incarnation of a word, but of the incarnation of God the

Son, therefore called _the word_, because his incarnation was the

performance of the promise; in like manner as the Holy Ghost is called

(_Acts_ i. 4; _Luke_ xxiv. 49) _the promise_.

[Sidenote: Thirdly, for the words of reason and equity.]

There are also places of the Scripture, where, by the _word of God_, is

signified such words as are consonant to reason and equity, though

spoken sometimes neither by prophet, nor by a holy man. For

Pharaoh-Necho was an idolater; yet his words to the good king Josiah, in

which he advised him by messengers, not to oppose him in his march

against Charchemish, are said to have proceeded from the mouth of God;

and that Josiah, not hearkening to them, was slain in the battle; as is

to be read (_2 Chron._ xxxv. 21, 22, 23.) It is true, that as the same

history is related in the first book of Esdras, not Pharaoh, but

Jeremiah, spake these words to Josiah, from the mouth of the Lord. But

we are to give credit to the canonical Scripture, whatsoever be written

in the Apocrypha.

The _word of God_, is then also to be taken for the dictates of reason

and equity, when the same is said in the Scriptures to be written in

man’s heart; as _Psalm_ xxxvii. 31; _Jer._ xxxi. 33; _Deut._ xxx. 11,

14, and many other like places.

[Sidenote: Divers acceptions of the word prophet.]

The name of PROPHET signifieth in Scripture, sometimes _prolocutor_;

that is, he that speaketh from God to man, or from man to God: and

sometimes _predictor_, or a foreteller of things to come: and sometimes

one that speaketh incoherently, as men that are distracted. It is most

frequently used in the sense of speaking from God to the people. So

Moses, Samuel, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others were _prophets_. And

in this sense the high-priest was a _prophet_, for he only went into the

_sanctum sanctorum_, to enquire of God; and was to declare his answer to

the people. And therefore when Caiphas said, it was expedient that one

man should die for the people, St. John saith (chapter xi. 51) that _He

spake not this of himself, but being high-priest that year, he

prophesied that one man should die for the nation_. Also they that in

Christian congregations taught the people, (_1 Cor._ xiv. 3) are said to

prophecy. In the like sense it is, that God saith to Moses (_Exod._ iv.

16) concerning Aaron, _He shall be thy spokesman to the people; and he

shall be to thee a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God_: that

which here is _spokesman_, is (_Exod._ vii. 1) interpreted prophet;

_See_, saith God, _I have made thee a God to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy

brother shall be thy prophet_. In the sense of speaking from man to God,

Abraham is called a prophet (_Gen._ xx. 7) where God in a dream speaketh

to Abimelech in this manner, _Now therefore restore the man his wife,

for he is a prophet, and shall pray for thee_; whereby may be also

gathered, that the name of prophet may be given, not unproperly, to them

that in Christian churches, have a calling to say public prayers for the

congregation. In the same sense, the prophets that came down from the

high place, or hill of God, with a psaltery, and a tabret, and a pipe,

and a harp (_1 Sam._ x. 5, 6, and 10), Saul amongst them, are said to

prophecy, in that they praised God in that manner publicly. In the like

sense, is Miriam (_Exod._ xv. 20) called a prophetess. So is it also to

be taken (_1 Cor._ xi. 4, 5), where St. Paul saith, _Every man that

prayeth or prophecieth with his head covered, &c., and every woman that

prayeth or prophecieth with her head uncovered_: for prophecy, in that

place, signifieth no more, but praising God in psalms and holy songs;

which women might do in the church, though it were not lawful for them

to speak to the congregation. And in this signification it is, that the

poets of the heathen, that composed hymns and other sorts of poems in

the honour of their gods, were called _vates_, prophets; as is well

enough known by all that are versed in the books of the Gentiles, and as

is evident (_Tit._ i. 12), where St. Paul saith of the Cretians, that a

prophet of their own said, they were liars; not that St. Paul held their

poets for prophets, but acknowledgeth that the word prophet was commonly

used to signify them that celebrated the honour of God in verse.

[Sidenote: Prediction of future contingents, not always prophecy.]

When by prophecy is meant prediction, or foretelling of future

contingents; not only they were prophets, who were God’s spokesmen, and

foretold those things to others, which God had foretold to them; but

also all those impostors, that pretend, by help of familiar spirits, or

by superstitious divination of events past, from false causes, to

foretel the like events in time to come: of which, as I have declared

already in the twelfth chapter of this discourse, there be many kinds,

who gain in the opinion of the common sort of men, a greater reputation

of prophecy, by one casual event that may be but wrested to their

purpose, than can be lost again by never so many failings. Prophecy is

not an art, nor, when it is taken for prediction, a constant vocation;

but an extraordinary, and temporary employment from God, most often of

good men, but sometimes also of the wicked. The woman of Endor, who is

said to have had a familiar spirit, and thereby to have raised a

phantasm of Samuel, and foretold Saul his death, was not therefore a

prophetess; for neither had she any science, whereby she could raise

such a phantasm; nor does it appear that God commanded the raising of

it; but only guided that imposture to be a means of Saul’s terror and

discouragement, and by consequent, of the discomfiture by which he fell.

And for incoherent speech, it was amongst the Gentiles taken for one

sort of prophecy, because the prophets of their oracles, intoxicated

with a spirit or vapour from the cave of the Pythian oracle at Delphi,

were for the time really mad, and spake like madmen; of whose loose

words a sense might be made to fit any event, in such sort, as all

bodies are said to be made of _materia prima_. In Scripture I find it

also so taken (_1 Sam._ xviii. 10) in these words, _And the evil spirit

came upon Saul, and he prophecied in the midst of the house_.

[Sidenote: The manner how God hath spoken to the prophets.]

And although there be so many significations in Scripture of the word

_prophet_; yet is that the most frequent, in which it is taken for him,

to whom God speaketh immediately that which the prophet is to say from

him, to some other man, or to the people. And hereupon a question may be

asked, in what manner God speaketh to such a prophet. Can it, may some

say, be properly said, that God hath voice and language, when it cannot

be properly said, he hath a tongue, or other organs, as a man? The

prophet David argueth thus, (_Psalm_ xciv. 9) _Shall he that made the

eye, not see? or he that made the ear, not hear?_ But this may be

spoken, not as usually, to signify God’s nature, but to signify our

intention to honour him. For to _see_, and _hear_, are honourable

attributes, and may be given to God, to declare, as far as our capacity

can conceive, his almighty power. But if it were to be taken in the

strict and proper sense, one might argue from his making of all other

parts of man’s body, that he had also the same use of them which we

have; which would be many of them so uncomely, as it would be the

greatest contumely in the world to ascribe them to him. Therefore we are

to interpret God’s speaking to men immediately, for that way, whatsoever

it be, by which God makes them understand his will. And the ways whereby

he doth this, are many, and to be sought only in the Holy Scripture:

where though many times it be said, that God spake to this, and that

person, without declaring in what manner; yet there be again many

places, that deliver also the signs by which they were to acknowledge

his presence, and commandment; and by these may be understood, how he

spake to many of the rest.

[Sidenote: To the extraordinary prophets of the Old Testament he spake

by dreams, or visions.]

In what manner God spake to Adam, and Eve, and Cain, and Noah, is not

expressed; nor how he spake to Abraham, till such time as he came out of

his own country to Sichem in the land of Canaan; and then (_Gen._ xii.

7) God is said to have _appeared_ to him. So there is one way, whereby

God made his presence manifest; that is, by an _apparition_, or

_vision_. And again, (_Gen._ xv. 1) _the word of the Lord came to

Abraham in a vision_; that is to say, somewhat, as a sign of God’s

presence, appeared as God’s messenger, to speak to him. Again, the Lord

appeared to Abraham (_Gen._ xviii. 1) by an apparition of three angels;

and to Abimelech (Gen. xx. 3) in a dream: to Lot (_Gen._ xix. 1) by an

apparition of two angels: and to Agar (_Gen._ xxi. 17) by the apparition

of one angel: and to Abraham again (_Gen._ xxii. 11) by the apparition

of a voice from heaven: and (_Gen._ xxvi. 24) to Isaac in the night,

that is, in his sleep, or by dream: and to Jacob (_Gen._ xxviii. 12) in

a dream; that is to say, as are the words of the text, _Jacob dreamed

that he saw a ladder, &c._: and (_Gen._ xxxii. 1) in a vision of angels:

and to Moses (_Exod._ iii. 2) in the apparition of a flame of fire out

of the midst of a bush. And after the time of Moses, where the manner

how God spake immediately to man in the Old Testament is expressed, he

spake always by a vision, or by a dream; as to Gideon, Samuel, Eliah,

Elisha, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and the rest of the prophets; and often in the

New Testament, as to Joseph, to St. Peter, to St. Paul, and to St. John

the Evangelist in the Apocalypse.

Only to Moses he spake in a more extraordinary manner in Mount Sinai,

and in the Tabernacle; and to the high-priest in the Tabernacle, and in

the _sanctum sanctorum_ of the Temple. But Moses, and after him the

high-priests, were prophets of a more eminent place and degree in God’s

favour; and God himself in express words declareth, that to other

prophets he spake in dreams and visions, but to his servant Moses, in

such manner as a man speaketh to his friend. The words are these

(_Numb._ xii. 6, 7, 8) _If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will

make myself known to him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a

dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all my house; with

him I will speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, not in dark speeches;

and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold._ And (_Exod._ xxxiii.

11) _The Lord spake to Moses face to face, as a man speaketh to his

friend_. And yet this speaking of God to Moses, was by mediation of an

angel, or angels, as appears expressly, _Acts_ vii. 35 and 53, and

_Gal._ iii. 19; and was therefore a vision, though a more clear vision

than was given to other prophets. And conformable hereunto, where God

saith (_Deut._ xiii. 1) _If there arise amongst you a prophet, or

dreamer of dreams_, the latter word is but the interpretation of the

former. And (_Joel_, ii. 28) _Your sons and your daughters shall

prophecy; your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see

visions_; where again, the word _prophecy_ is expounded by _dream_, and

_vision_. And in the same manner it was, that God spake to Solomon,

promising him wisdom, riches, and honour; for the text saith, (_1 Kings_

iii. 15) _And Solomon awoke, and behold it was a dream_; so that

generally the prophets extraordinary in the Old Testament took notice of

the word of God no otherwise than from their dreams, or visions; that is

to say, from the imaginations which they had in their sleep, or in an

extasy: which imaginations in every true prophet were supernatural; but

in false prophets were either natural or feigned.

The same prophets were nevertheless said to speak by the spirit; as

(_Zech._ vii. 12); where the prophet speaking of the Jews, saith, _They

made their hearts hard as adamant, lest they should hear the law, and

the words which the Lord of Hosts hath sent in his Spirit by the former

prophets_. By which it is manifest, that speaking by the _spirit_, or

_inspiration_, was not a particular manner of God’s speaking, different

from vision, when they, that were said to speak by the Spirit, were

extraordinary prophets, such as for every new message, were to have a

peculiar commission, or, which is all one, a new dream, or vision.

[Sidenote: To prophets of perpetual calling, and supreme, God spake in

the Old Testament from the mercy seat, in a manner not

expressed in the Scripture.]

Of prophets, that were so by a perpetual calling in the Old Testament,

some were _supreme_, and some _subordinate_: supreme were first Moses;

and after him the high-priests, every one for his time, as long as the

priesthood was royal; and after the people of the Jews had rejected God,

that he should no more reign over them, those kings which submitted

themselves to God’s government, were also his chief prophets; and the

high-priest’s office became ministerial. And when God was to be

consulted, they put on the holy vestments, and enquired of the Lord, as

the king commanded them, and were deprived of their office, when the

king thought fit. For king Saul (_1 Sam._ xiii. 9) commanded the burnt

offering to be brought, and (_1 Sam._ xiv. 18) he commands the priests

to bring the ark near him; and (v. 19) again to let it alone, because he

saw an advantage upon his enemies. And in the same chapter (v. 37) Saul

asketh counsel of God. In like manner king David, after his being

anointed, though before he had possession of the kingdom, is said to

_enquire of the Lord_ (_1 Sam._ xxiii. 2) whether he should fight

against the Philistines at Keilah; and (verse 9) David commandeth the

priest to bring him the ephod, to enquire whether he should stay in

Keilah, or not. And king Solomon (_1 Kings_ ii. 27) took the priesthood

from Abiathar, and gave it (verse 35) to Zadok. Therefore Moses, and the

high-priests, and the pious kings, who enquired of God on all

extraordinary occasions, how they were to carry themselves, or what

event they were to have, were all sovereign prophets. But in what manner

God spake unto them is not manifest. To say that when Moses went up to

God in Mount Sinai, it was a dream or vision, such as other prophets

had, is contrary to that distinction which God made between Moses and

other prophets (_Numb._ xii. 6, 7, 8). To say God spake or appeared as

he is in his own nature, is to deny his infiniteness, invisibility,

incomprehensibility. To say he spake by inspiration, or infusion of the

Holy Spirit, as the Holy Spirit signifieth the Deity, is to make Moses

equal with Christ, in whom only the Godhead (as St. Paul speaketh,

_Col._ ii. 9) dwelleth bodily. And lastly, to say he spake by the Holy

Spirit, as it signifieth the graces or gifts of the Holy Spirit, is to

attribute nothing to him supernatural. For God disposeth men to piety,

justice, mercy, truth, faith, and all manner of virtue, both moral and

intellectual, by doctrine, example, and by several occasions, natural

and ordinary.

And as these ways cannot be applied to God in his speaking to Moses, at

Mount Sinai; so also, they cannot be applied to him, in his speaking to

the high-priests, from the mercy-seat. Therefore in what manner God

spake to those sovereign prophets of the Old Testament, whose office it

was to enquire of him, is not intelligible. In the time of the New

Testament, there was no sovereign prophet, but our Saviour; who was both

God that spake, and the prophet to whom he spake.

[Sidenote: To prophets of perpetual calling, but subordinate, God spake

by the spirit.]

To subordinate prophets of perpetual calling, I find not any place that

proveth God spake to them supernaturally; but only in such manner, as

naturally he inclineth men to piety, to belief, to righteousness, and to

other virtues all other Christian men. Which way, though it consist in

constitution, instruction, education, and the occasions and invitements

men have to Christian virtues; yet it is truly attributed to the

operation of the Spirit of God, or Holy Spirit, which we in our language

call the Holy Ghost: for there is no good inclination, that is not of

the operation of God. But these operations are not always supernatural.

When therefore a prophet is said to speak in the spirit, or by the

spirit of God, we are to understand no more, but that he speaks

according to God’s will, declared by the supreme prophet. For the most

common acceptation of the word spirit, is in the signification of a

man’s intention, mind, or disposition.

In the time of Moses, there were seventy men besides himself, that

_prophecied_ in the camp of the Israelites. In what manner God spake to

them, is declared in _Numbers_, chap. xi. verse 25. _The Lord came down

in a cloud, and spake unto Moses, and took of the spirit that was upon

him, and gave it to the seventy elders. And it came to pass, when the

spirit rested upon them, they prophecied and did not cease._ By which it

is manifest, first, that their prophecying to the people was subservient

and subordinate to the prophecying of Moses; for that God took of the

spirit of Moses, to put upon them; so that they prophecied as Moses

would have them: otherwise they had not been suffered to prophecy at

all. For there was (verse 27) a complaint made against them to Moses;

and Joshua would have Moses to have forbidden them; which he did not,

but said to Joshua, _be not jealous in my behalf_. Secondly, that the

spirit of God in that place signifieth nothing but the mind and

disposition to obey and assist Moses in the administration of the

government. For if it were meant they had the substantial spirit of God;

that is, the divine nature, inspired into them, then they had it in no

less manner than Christ himself, in whom only the spirit of God dwelt

bodily. It is meant therefore of the gift and grace of God, that guided

them to cooperate with Moses; from whom their spirit was derived. And it

appeareth (_Numb._ xi. 16) that they were such as Moses himself should

appoint for elders and officers of the people: for the words are,

_Gather unto me seventy men, whom thou knowest to be elders and officers

of the people_: where, _thou knowest_, is the same with _thou

appointest_, or _hast appointed to be such_. For we are told before

(_Exod._ xviii. 24) that Moses following the counsel of Jethro, his

father-in-law, did appoint judges and officers over the people, such as

feared God; and of these were those seventy, whom God, by putting upon

them Moses’ spirit, inclined to aid Moses in the administration of the

kingdom: and in this sense the spirit of God is said (_1 Sam._ xvi. 13,

14) presently upon the anointing of David, to have come upon David, and

left Saul; God giving his graces to him he chose to govern his people,

and taking them away from him he rejected. So that by the spirit is

meant inclination to God’s service; and not any supernatural revelation.

[Sidenote: God sometimes also spake by lots.]

God spake also many times by the event of lots; which were ordered by

such as he had put in authority over his people. So we read that God

manifested by the lots which Saul caused to be drawn (_1 Sam._ xiv. 43)

the fault that Jonathan had committed, in eating a honey-comb, contrary

to the oath taken by the people. And (_Josh._ xviii. 10) God divided the

land of Canaan amongst the Israelites, by the _lots that Joshua did cast

before the Lord in Shiloh_. In the same manner it seemeth to be, that

God discovered (_Joshua_ vii. 16, &c.) the crime of Achan. And these are

the ways whereby God declared his will in the Old Testament.

All which ways he used also in the New Testament. To the Virgin Mary, by

a vision of an angel: to Joseph in a dream: again, to Paul, in the way

to Damascus, in a vision of our Saviour: and to Peter in the vision of a

sheet let down from heaven, with divers sorts of flesh; of clean, and

unclean beasts; and in prison, by vision of an angel: and to all the

apostles, and writers of the New Testament, by the graces of his spirit;

and to the apostles again, at the choosing of Matthias in the place of

Judas Iscariot, by lot.

[Sidenote: Every man ought to examine the probability of a pretended

prophet’s calling.]

Seeing then, all prophecy supposeth vision, or dream, (which two, when

they be natural, are the same), or some especial gift of God so rarely

observed in mankind as to be admired where observed; and seeing as well

such gifts, as the most extraordinary dreams and visions, may proceed

from God, not only by his supernatural, and immediate, but also by his

natural operation, and by mediation of second causes; there is need of

reason and judgment to discern between natural, and supernatural gifts,

and between natural, and supernatural visions or dreams. And

consequently men had need to be very circumspect and wary, in obeying

the voice of man, that pretending himself to be a prophet, requires us

to obey God in that way, which he in God’s name telleth us to be the way

to happiness. For he that pretends to teach men the way of so great

felicity, pretends to govern them; that is to say, to rule and reign

over them; which is a thing, that all men naturally desire, and is

therefore worthy to be suspected of ambition and imposture; and

consequently, ought to be examined and tried by every man, before he

yield them obedience; unless he have yielded it them already, in the

institution of a commonwealth; as when the prophet is the civil

sovereign, or by the civil sovereign authorized. And if this examination

of prophets and spirits, were not allowed to every one of the people, it

had been to no purpose to set out the marks, by which every man might be

able to distinguish between those, whom they ought, and those whom they

ought not to follow. Seeing therefore such marks are set out (_Deut._

xiii. 1, &c.) to know a prophet by; and (_1 John_ iv. 1, &c.) to know a

spirit by: and seeing there is so much prophecying in the Old Testament,

and so much preaching in the New Testament, against prophets; and so

much greater a number ordinarily of false prophets, than of true; every

one is to beware of obeying their directions, at their own peril. And

first, that there were many more false than true prophets, appears by

this, that when Ahab (_1 Kings_ xxii.) consulted four hundred prophets,

they were all false impostors, but only one Micaiah. And a little before

the time of the captivity, the prophets were generally liars. _The

prophets_, (saith the Lord, by _Jeremiah_, chapter xiv. 14) _prophecy

lies in my name. I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, nor

spake unto them; they prophecy to you a false vision, a thing of nought,

and the deceit of their heart._ Insomuch as God commanded the people by

the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah (chapter xxiii. 16) not to obey them:

_Thus saith the Lord of hosts, hearken not unto the words of the

prophets, that prophecy to you. They make you vain, they speak a vision

of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord._

[Sidenote: All prophecy but of the sovereign prophet, is to be examined

by every subject.]

Seeing then there was in the time of the Old Testament, such quarrels

amongst the visionary prophets, one contesting with another, and asking,

_when departed the Spirit from me, to go to thee?_ as between Micaiah

and the rest of the four hundred; and such giving of the lie to one

another, (as in _Jerem._ xiv. 14) and such controversies in the New

Testament at this day, amongst the spiritual prophets; every man then

was, and now is bound to make use of his natural reason, to apply to all

prophecy those rules which God hath given us, to discern the true from

false. Of which rules, in the Old Testament, one was, conformable

doctrine to that which Moses the sovereign prophet had taught them; and

the other, the miraculous power of foretelling what God would bring to

pass, as I have already showed out of _Deut._ xiii. 1, &c. And in the

New Testament there was but one only mark; and that was the preaching of

this doctrine, _that Jesus is the Christ_, that is, king of the Jews,

promised in the Old Testament. Whosoever denied that article, he was a

false prophet, whatsoever miracles he might seem to work; and he that

taught it was a true prophet. For St. John (_1 Epist._ iv. 2, &c.)

speaking expressly of the means to examine spirits, whether they be of

God, or not; after he had told them that there would arise false

prophets, saith thus, _Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit

that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God_; that

is, is approved and allowed as a prophet of God: not that he is a godly

man, or one of the elect, for this, that he confesseth, professeth, or

preacheth Jesus to be the Christ; but for that he is a prophet avowed.

For God sometimes speaketh by prophets, whose persons he hath not

accepted; as he did by Balaam; and as he foretold Saul of his death, by

the Witch of Endor. Again in the next verse, _Every spirit that

confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of Christ;

and this is the spirit of Anti-Christ_. So that the rule is perfect on

both sides; that he is a true prophet, which preacheth the Messiah

already come, in the person of Jesus; and he a false one that denieth

him come, and looketh for him in some future impostor, that shall take

upon him that honour falsely, whom the apostle there properly calleth

Anti-Christ. Every man therefore ought to consider who is the sovereign

prophet; that is to say, who it is, that is God’s vicegerent on earth;

and hath next under God, the authority of governing Christian men; and

to observe for a rule, that doctrine, which in the name of God, he hath

commanded to be taught; and thereby to examine and try out the truth of

those doctrines, which pretended prophets with miracle, or without,

shall at any time advance: and if they find it contrary to that rule, to

do as they did, that came to Moses, and complained that there were some

that prophecied in the camp, whose authority so to do they doubted of;

and leave to the sovereign, as they did to Moses, to uphold, or to

forbid them, as he should see cause; and if he disavow them, then no

more to obey their voice; or if he approve them, then to obey them, as

men to whom God hath given a part of the spirit of their sovereign. For

when Christian men, take not their Christian sovereign, for God’s

prophet; they must either take their own dreams, for the prophecy they

mean to be governed by, and the tumor of their own hearts for the Spirit

of God; or they must suffer themselves to be led by some strange prince;

or by some of their fellow-subjects, that can bewitch them, by slander

of the government, into rebellion, without other miracle to confirm

their calling, than sometimes an extraordinary success and impunity; and

by this means destroying all laws, both divine and human, reduce all

order, government, and society, to the first chaos of violence and civil

war.

-------

CHAPTER XXXVII.

OF MIRACLES, AND THEIR USE.

[Sidenote: A miracle is a work that causeth admiration.]

By _miracles_ are signified the admirable works of God: and therefore

they are also called _wonders_. And because they are for the most part,

done, for a signification of his commandment, in such occasions, as

without them, men are apt to doubt, (following their private natural

reasoning,) what he hath commanded, and what not, they are commonly, in

holy Scripture, called _signs_, in the same sense, as they are called by

the Latins, _ostenta_, and _portenta_, from showing and fore-signifying

that, which the Almighty is about to bring to pass.

[Sidenote: And must therefore be rare, and whereof there is no natural

cause known.]

To understand therefore what is a miracle, we must first understand what

works they are, which men wonder at, and call admirable. And there be

but two things which make men wonder at any event: the one is, if it be

strange, that is to say, such as the like of it hath never, or very

rarely been produced: the other is, if when it is produced, we cannot

imagine it to have been done by natural means, but only by the immediate

hand of God. But when we see some possible, natural cause of it, how

rarely soever the like has been done, or if the like have been often

done, how impossible soever it be to imagine a natural means thereof, we

no more wonder, nor esteem it for a miracle.

Therefore, if a horse or cow should speak, it were a miracle; because

both the thing is strange, and the natural cause difficult to imagine.

So also were it to see a strange deviation of nature, in the production

of some new shape of a living creature. But when a man, or other animal,

engenders his like, though we know no more how this is done, than the

other; yet because it is usual, it is no miracle. In like manner, if a

man be metamorphosed into a stone, or into a pillar, it is a miracle;

because strange: but if a piece of wood be so changed; because we see it

often, it is no miracle: and yet we know no more by what operation of

God, the one is brought to pass, than the other.

The first rainbow that was seen in the world, was a miracle, because the

first; and consequently strange; and served for a sign from God, placed

in heaven, to assure his people, there should be no more any universal

destruction of the world by water. But at this day, because they are

frequent, they are not miracles, neither to them that know their natural

causes, nor to them who know them not. Again, there be many rare works

produced by the art of man: yet when we know they are done; because

thereby we know also the means how they are done, we count them not for

miracles, because not wrought by the immediate hand of God, but of human

industry.

[Sidenote: That which seemeth a miracle to one man, may seem otherwise

to another.]

Furthermore, seeing admiration and wonder are consequent to the

knowledge and experience, wherewith men are endued, some more, some

less; it followeth, that the same thing may be a miracle to one, and not

to another. And thence it is, that ignorant and superstitious men make

great wonders of those works, which other men, knowing to proceed from

nature, (which is not the immediate, but the ordinary work of God),

admire not at all: as when eclipses of the sun and moon have been taken

for supernatural works, by the common people; when nevertheless, there

were others, who could from their natural causes have foretold the very

hour they should arrive: or, as when a man, by confederacy and secret

intelligence, getting knowledge of the private actions of an ignorant,

unwary man, thereby tells him what he has done in former time; it seems

to him a miraculous thing; but amongst wise, and cautelous men, such

miracles as those, cannot easily be done.

[Sidenote: The end of miracles.]

Again, it belongeth to the nature of a miracle, that it be wrought for

the procuring of credit to God’s messengers, ministers, and prophets,

that thereby men may know, they are called, sent, and employed by God,

and thereby be the better inclined to obey them. And therefore, though

the creation of the world, and after that the destruction of all living

creatures in the universal deluge, were admirable works; yet because

they were not done to procure credit to any prophet, or other minister

of God, they use not to be called miracles. For how admirable soever any

work be, the admiration consisteth not in that it could be done; because

men naturally believe the Almighty can do all things; but because he

does it at the prayer or word of a man. But the works of God in Egypt,

by the hand of Moses, were properly miracles; because they were done

with intention to make the people of Israel believe, that Moses came

unto them, not out of any design of his own interest, but as sent from

God. Therefore, after God had commanded him to deliver the Israelites

from the Egyptian bondage, when he said (_Exod._ iv. 1) _They will not

believe me, but will say, the Lord hath not appeared unto me_, God gave

him power, to turn the rod he had in his hand into a serpent, and again

to return it into a rod; and by putting his hand into his bosom, to make

it leprous; and again by putting it out, to make it whole; to make the

children of Israel believe (as it is in verse 5) that the God of their

fathers had appeared unto him: and if that were not enough, he gave him

power to turn their waters into blood. And when he had done these

miracles before the people, it is said (verse 31) that _they believed

him_. Nevertheless, for fear of Pharaoh, they durst not yet obey him.

Therefore the other works which were done to plague Pharaoh and the

Egyptians, tended all to make the Israelites believe in Moses, and were

properly miracles. In like manner if we consider all the miracles done

by the hand of Moses, and all the rest of the prophets, till the

captivity; and those of our Saviour, and his apostles afterwards; we

shall find, their end was always to beget or confirm belief, that they

came not of their own motion, but were sent by God. We may farther

observe in Scripture, that the end of miracles, was to beget belief, not

universally in all men, elect and reprobate; but in the elect only; that

is to say, in such as God had determined should become his subjects. For

those miraculous plagues of Egypt, had not for their end, the conversion

of Pharaoh; for God had told Moses before, that he would harden the

heart of Pharoah, that he should not let the people go: and when he let

them go at last, not the miracles persuaded him, but the plagues forced

him to it. So also of our Saviour, it is written (_Matth._ xiii. 58),

that he wrought not many miracles in his own country, because of their

unbelief; and (in _Mark_ vi. 5) instead of, _He wrought not many_, it

is, _He could work none_. It was not because he wanted power; which to

say, were blasphemy against God; nor that the end of miracles was not to

convert incredulous men to Christ; for the end of all the miracles of

Moses, of the prophets, of our Saviour, and of his apostles was to add

men to the church: but it was, because the end of their miracles, was to

add to the church, not all men, but such as should be saved; that is to

say, such as God had elected. Seeing therefore our Saviour was sent from

his Father, he could not use his power in the conversion of those, whom

his Father had rejected. They that expounding this place of _St. Mark_,

say, that this word, _He could not_, is put for, _He would not_, do it

without example in the Greek tongue: where _would not_, is put sometimes

for _could not_, in things inanimate, that have no will; but _could

not_, for _would not_ never: and thereby lay a stumbling block before

weak Christians; as if Christ could do no miracles, but amongst the

credulous.

[Sidenote: The definition of a miracle.]

From that which I have here set down, of the nature and use of a

miracle, we may define it thus: A MIRACLE _is a work of God, (besides

his operation by the way of nature, ordained in the creation) done, for

the making manifest to his elect, the mission of an extraordinary

minister for their salvation_.

And from this definition, we may infer; first, that in all miracles, the

work done, is not the effect of any virtue in the prophet; because it is

the effect of the immediate hand of God; that is to say God hath done

it, without using the prophet therein, as a subordinate cause.

Secondly, that no devil, angel, or other created spirit, can do a

miracle. For it must either be by virtue of some natural science, or by

incantation, that is, by virtue of words. For if the enchanters do it by

their own power independent, there is some power that proceedeth not

from God; which all men deny: and if they do it by power given them,

then is the work not from the immediate hand of God, but natural, and

consequently no miracle.

There be some texts of Scripture, that seem to attribute the power of

working wonders, equal to some of those immediate miracles wrought by

God himself, to certain arts of magic and incantation. As for example,

when we read that after the rod of Moses being cast on the ground became

a serpent, (_Exod._ vii. 11) _the magicians of Egypt did the like by

their enchantments_; and that after Moses had turned the waters of the

Egyptian streams, rivers, ponds, and pools of water into blood, (_Exod._

vii. 22) _the magicians did so likewise with their enchantments_; and

that after Moses had by the power of God brought frogs upon the land,

(_Exod._ viii. 7) _the magicians also did so with their enchantments,

and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt_; will not a man be apt to

attribute miracles to enchantments; that is to say, to the efficacy of

the sound of words; and think the same very well proved out of this, and

other such places? And yet there is no place of Scripture, that telleth

us what an enchantment is. If therefore enchantment be not, as many

think it, a working of strange effects by spells and words; but

imposture and delusion, wrought by ordinary means; and so far from

supernatural, as the impostors need not the study so much as of natural

causes, but the ordinary ignorance, stupidity, and superstition of

mankind, to do them; those texts that seem to countenance the power of

magic, witchcraft, and enchantment, must needs have another sense, than

at first sight they seem to bear.

For it is evident enough, that words have no effect, but on those that

understand them; and then they have no other, but to signify the

intentions or passions of them that speak; and thereby produce hope,

fear, or other passions or conceptions in the hearer. Therefore when a

rod seemeth a serpent, or the waters blood, or any other miracle seemeth

done by enchantment; if it be not to the edification of God’s people,

not the rod, nor the water, nor any other thing is enchanted; that is to

say, wrought upon by the words, but the spectator. So that all the

miracle consisteth in this, that the enchanter has deceived a man; which

is no miracle, but a very easy matter to do.

[Sidenote: That men are apt to be deceived by false miracles.]

For such is the ignorance and aptitude to error generally of all men,

but especially of them that have not much knowledge of natural causes,

and of the nature and interests of men; as by innumerable and easy

tricks to be abused. What opinion of miraculous power, before it was

known there was a science of the course of the stars, might a man have

gained, that should have told the people, this hour or day the sun

should be darkened? A juggler by the handling of his goblets and other

trinkets, if it were not now ordinarily practised, would be thought to

do his wonders by the power at least of the devil. A man that hath

practised to speak by drawing in of his breath, (which kind of men in

ancient time were called _ventriloqui_), and so make the weakness of his

voice seem to proceed, not from the weak impulsion of the organs of

speech, but from distance of place, is able to make very many men

believe it is a voice from Heaven, whatsoever he please to tell them.

And for a crafty man, that hath enquired into the secrets, and familiar

confessions that one man ordinarily maketh to another of his actions and

adventures past, to tell them him again is no hard matter; and yet there

be many, that by such means as that obtain the reputation of being

conjurers. But it is too long a business, to reckon up the several sorts

of those men, which the Greeks called θαυματουργοι, that is to say,

workers of things wonderful: and yet these do all they do, by their own

single dexterity. But if we look upon the impostures wrought by

confederacy, there is nothing how impossible soever to be done, that is

impossible to be believed. For two men conspiring, one to seem lame, the

other to cure him with a charm, will deceive many: but many conspiring,

one to seem lame, another so to cure him, and all the rest to bear

witness, will deceive many more.

[Sidenote: Cautions against the imposture of miracles.]

In this aptitude of mankind, to give too hasty belief to pretended

miracles, there can be no better, nor I think any other caution, than

that which God hath prescribed, first by Moses, as I have said before in

the precedent chapter, in the beginning of the xiiith and end of the

xviiith of _Deuteronomy_; that we take not any for prophets, that teach

any other religion, than that which God’s lieutenant, which at that time

was Moses, hath established; nor any, though he teach the same religion,

whose prediction we do not see come to pass. Moses therefore in his

time, and Aaron and his successors in their times, and the sovereign

governor of God’s people, next under God himself, that is to say, the

head of the Church, in all times, are to be consulted, what doctrine he

hath established, before we give credit to a pretended miracle or

prophet. And when that is done, the thing they pretend to be a miracle,

we must both see it done, and use all means possible to consider,

whether it be really done; and not only so, but whether it be such, as

no man can do the like by his natural power, but that it requires the

immediate hand of God. And in this also we must have recourse to God’s

lieutenant, to whom in all doubtful cases, we have submitted our private

judgments. For example; if a man pretend, after certain words spoken

over a piece of bread, that presently God hath made it not bread, but a

god, or a man, or both, and nevertheless it looketh still as like bread

as ever it did; there is no reason for any man to think it really done,

nor consequently to fear him, till he enquire of God, by his vicar or

lieutenant, whether it be done, or not. If he say, not, then followeth

that which Moses saith (_Deut._ xviii. 22) _he hath spoken it

presumptuously, thou shalt not fear him_. If he say, it is done, then he

is not to contradict it. So also if we see not, but only hear tell of a

miracle, we are to consult the lawful Church; that is to say, the lawful

head thereof, how far we are to give credit to the relators of it. And

this is chiefly the case of men, that in these days live under Christian

sovereigns. For in these times, I do not know one man, that ever saw any

such wonderous work, done by the charm, or at the word, or prayer of a

man, that a man endued but with a mediocrity of reason would think

supernatural: and the question is no more, whether what we see done, be

a miracle; whether the miracle we hear, or read of, were a real work,

and not the act of a tongue, or pen; but in plain terms, whether the

report be true, or a lie. In which question we are not every one, to

make our own private reason, or conscience, but the public reason, that

is, the reason of God’s supreme lieutenant, judge; and indeed we have

made him judge already, if we have given him a sovereign power, to do

all that is necessary for our peace and defence. A private man has

always the liberty, because thought is free, to believe or not believe

in his heart those acts that have been given out for miracles, according

as he shall see what benefit can accrue by men’s belief, to those that

pretend or countenance them, and thereby conjecture whether they be

miracles or lies. But when it comes to confession of that faith, the

private reason must submit to the public; that is to say, to God’s

lieutenant. But who is this lieutenant of God, and head of the Church,

shall be considered in its proper place hereafter.

-------

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

OF THE SIGNIFICATION IN SCRIPTURE OF ETERNAL

LIFE, HELL, SALVATION, THE WORLD

TO COME, AND REDEMPTION.

The maintenance of civil society depending on justice, and justice on

the power of life and death, and other less rewards and punishments,

residing in them that have the sovereignty of the commonwealth; it is

impossible a commonwealth should stand, where any other than the

sovereign hath a power of giving greater rewards than life, and of

inflicting greater punishments than death. Now seeing _eternal life_ is

a greater reward than the _life present_; and _eternal torment_ a

greater punishment than the _death of nature_; it is a thing worthy to

be well considered of all men that desire, by obeying authority, to

avoid the calamities of confusion and civil war, what is meant in Holy

Scripture, by _life eternal_, and _torment eternal_; and for what

offences, and against whom committed, men are to be _eternally

tormented_; and for what actions they are to obtain _eternal life_.

[Sidenote: The place of Adam’s eternity, if he had not sinned, had been

the terrestrial Paradise.]

And first we find that Adam was created in such a condition of life, as

had he not broken the commandment of God, he had enjoyed it in the

paradise of Eden everlastingly. For there was the _tree of life_,

whereof he was so long allowed to eat, as he should forbear to eat of

the tree of knowledge of good and evil; which was not allowed him. And

therefore as soon as he had eaten of it, God thrust him out of Paradise,

(_Gen._ iii. 22) _lest he should put forth his hand, and take also of

the tree of life and live for ever_. By which it seemeth to me, (with

submission nevertheless both in this, and in all questions whereof the

determination dependeth on the Scriptures, to the interpretation of the

Bible authorized by the commonwealth, whose subject I am), that Adam, if

he had not sinned, had had an eternal life on earth, and that mortality

entered upon himself and his posterity by his first sin. Not that actual

death then entered; for Adam then could never have had children; whereas

he lived long after, and saw a numerous posterity ere he died. But where

it is said, (_Gen._ ii. 17) _In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou

shalt surely die_, it must needs be meant of his mortality, and

certitude of death. Seeing then eternal life was lost by Adam’s

forfeiture in committing sin, he that should cancel that forfeiture, was

to recover thereby that life again. Now Jesus Christ hath satisfied for

the sins of all that believe in him; and therefore recovered to all

believers, that eternal life which was lost by the sin of Adam. And in

this sense it is that the comparison of St. Paul holdeth, (_Rom._ v. 18,

19) _As by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to

condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came

upon all men to justification of life_; which is again (_1 Cor._ xv. 21,

22) more perspicuously delivered in these words, _For since by man came

death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all

die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive._

[Sidenote: Texts concerning the place of life eternal, for believers.]

Concerning the place wherein men shall enjoy that eternal life which

Christ hath obtained for them, the texts next before alleged seem to

make it on earth. For if as in Adam all die, that is, have forfeited

paradise and eternal life on earth, even so in Christ all shall be made

alive; then all men shall be made to live on earth; for else the

comparison were not proper. Hereunto seemeth to agree that of the

psalmist (_Psalm_. cxxxiii. 3) _upon Zion God commanded the blessing,

even life for evermore_: for Zion is in Jerusalem upon earth: as also

that of St. John (_Rev._ ii. 7) _To him that overcometh I will give to

eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God_.

This was the tree of Adam’s eternal life; but his life was to have been

on earth. The same seemeth to be confirmed again by St. John (_Rev._

xxi. 2), where he saith, _I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,

coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her

husband_: and again (verse 10) to the same effect: as if he should say,

the new _Jerusalem_, the paradise of God, at the coming again of Christ,

should come down to God’s people from heaven, and not they go up to it

from earth. And this differs nothing from that, which the two men in

white clothing, that is the two angels, said to the apostles that were

looking upon Christ ascending (_Acts_ i. 11) _This same Jesus, who is

taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, as you have seen him go up

into heaven_. Which soundeth as if they had said he should come down to

govern them under his Father eternally here, and not take them up to

govern them in heaven; and is conformable to the restoration of the

kingdom of God instituted under Moses, which was a political government

of the Jews on earth. Again, that saying of our Saviour (_Matth._ xxii.

30), _that in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in

marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven_, is a description of

an eternal life, resembling that which we lost in Adam in the point of

marriage. For seeing Adam and Eve, if they had not sinned, had lived on

earth eternally in their individual persons; it is manifest, they should

not continually have procreated their kind; for if immortals should have

generated as mankind doth now, the earth in a small time would not have

been able to afford them place to stand on. The Jews that asked our

Saviour the question, whose wife the woman that had married many

brothers should be in the resurrection, knew not what were the

consequences of life eternal: and therefore our Saviour puts them in

mind of this consequence of immortality; that there shall be no

generation, and consequently no marriage, no more than there is marriage

or generation among the angels. The comparison between that eternal life

which Adam lost, and our Saviour by his victory over death hath

recovered, holdeth also in this; that as Adam lost eternal life by his

sin, and yet lived after it for a time, so the faithful Christian hath

recovered eternal life by Christ’s passion, though he die a natural

death, and remain dead for a time, namely, till the resurrection. For as

death is reckoned from the condemnation of Adam, not from the execution;

so life is reckoned from the absolution, not from the resurrection of

them that are elected in Christ.

[Sidenote: Ascension into heaven.]

That the place wherein men are to live eternally, after the

resurrection, is the heavens, (meaning by heaven, those parts of the

world, which are the most remote from earth, as where the stars are, or

above the stars, in another higher heaven, called _cœlum empyreum_,

whereof there is no mention in Scripture, nor ground in reason), is not

easily to be drawn from any text that I can find. By the Kingdom of

Heaven, is meant the kingdom of the King that dwelleth in heaven; and

his kingdom was the people of Israel, whom he ruled by the prophets, his

lieutenants; first Moses, and after him Eleazar, and the sovereign

priests, till in the days of Samuel they rebelled, and would have a

mortal man for their king, after the manner of other nations. And when

our Saviour Christ, by the preaching of his ministers, shall have

persuaded the Jews to return, and called the Gentiles to his obedience,

then shall there be a new kingdom of heaven; because our king shall then

be God, whose _throne_ is heaven: without any necessity evident in the

Scripture, that man shall ascend to his happiness any higher than God’s

_footstool_ the earth. On the contrary, we find written (_John_ iii. 13)

that _no man hath ascended into heaven, but he that came down from

heaven, even the son of man, that is in heaven_. Where I observe by the

way, that these words are not, as those which go immediately before, the

words of our Saviour, but of St. John himself; for Christ was then not

in heaven, but upon the earth. The like is said of David (_Acts_ ii. 34)

where St. Peter, to prove the ascension of Christ, using the words of

the Psalmist (_Psalm_ xvi. 10), _Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,

nor suffer thine holy one to see corruption_, saith, they were spoken,

not of David, but of Christ; and to prove it, addeth this reason, _For

David is not ascended into heaven_. But to this a man may easily answer,

and say, that though their bodies were not to ascend till the general

day of judgment, yet their souls were in heaven as soon as they were

departed from their bodies; which also seemeth to be confirmed by the

words of our Saviour (_Luke_ xx. 37, 38), who proving the resurrection

out of the words of Moses, saith thus, _That the dead are raised, even

Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord, the God of Abraham,

and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is not a God of the

dead, but of the living; for they all live to him._ But if these words

be to be understood only of the immortality of the soul, they prove not

at all that which our Saviour intended to prove, which was the

resurrection of the body, that is to say, the immortality of the man.

Therefore our Saviour meaneth, that those patriarchs were immortal; not

by a property consequent to the essence and nature of mankind; but by

the will of God, that was pleased of his mere grace, to bestow _eternal

life_ upon the faithful. And though at that time the patriarchs and many

other faithful men were _dead_, yet as it is in the text, they _lived to

God_; that is, they were written in the Book of Life with them that were

absolved of their sins, and ordained to life eternal at the

resurrection. That the soul of man is in its own nature eternal, and a

living creature independent on the body, or that any mere man is

immortal, otherwise than by the resurrection in the last day, except

Enoch and Elias, is a doctrine not apparent in Scripture. The whole of

the xivth chapter of _Job_, which is the speech not of his friends, but

of himself, is a complaint of this mortality of nature; and yet no

contradiction of the immortality at the resurrection. _There is hope of

a tree_, saith he, (verse 7) _if it be cast down. Though the root

thereof wax old, and the stock thereof die in the ground, yet when it

scenteth the water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant. But

man dieth and wasteth away, yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is

he?_ And (verse 12) _Man lieth down, and riseth not, till the heavens be

no more_. But when is it, that the heavens shall be no more? St. Peter

tells us, that it is at the general resurrection. For in his 2nd

_Epistle_, chap. iii. verse 7, he saith, _that the heavens and the earth

that are now, are reserved unto fire against the day of judgment, and

perdition of ungodly men_, and (v. 12) _looking for, and hasting to the

coming of God, wherein the heavens shall be on fire and shall be

dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless,

we according to the promise look for new heavens, and a new earth,

wherein dwelleth righteousness._ Therefore where Job saith, _man riseth

not till the heavens be no more_; it is all one, as if he had said, the

immortal life, (and soul and life in the Scripture do usually signify

the same thing,) beginneth not in man, till the resurrection and day of

judgment; and hath for cause, not his specifical nature and generation,

but the promise. For St. Peter says, not _We look for new heavens and a

new earth, from nature_, but _from promise_.

Lastly, seeing it hath been already proved out of divers evident places

of Scripture, in chap. xxxv. of this book, that the kingdom of God is a

civil commonwealth, where God himself is sovereign, by virtue first of

the _old_, and since of the _new_ covenant, wherein he reigneth by his

vicar or lieutenant; the same places do therefore also prove, that after

the coming again of our Saviour in his majesty and glory, to reign

actually and eternally, the kingdom of God is to be on earth. But

because this doctrine, though proved out of places of Scripture not few

nor obscure, will appear to most men a novelty, I do but propound it;

maintaining nothing in this, or any other paradox of religion; but

attending the end of that dispute of the sword, concerning the

authority, not yet amongst my countrymen decided, by which all sorts of

doctrine are to be approved or rejected; and whose commands, both in

speech and writing, whatsoever be the opinions of private men, must by

all men, that mean to be protected by their laws, be obeyed. For the

points of doctrine concerning the kingdom of God, have so great

influence on the kingdom of man, as not to be determined, but by them,

that under God have the sovereign power.

[Sidenote: The place after judgment of those who were never in the

kingdom of God, or having been in, are cast out.]

As the kingdom of God, and eternal life, so also God’s enemies, and

their torments after judgment, appear by the Scripture to have their

place on earth. The name of the place, where all men remain till the

resurrection, that were either buried, or swallowed up of the earth, is

usually called in Scripture, by words that signify _under ground_; which

the Latins read generally _infernus_, and _inferi_, and the Greek ἃδης,

that is to say, a place where men cannot see; and containeth as well the

grave, as any any other deeper place. But for the place of the damned

after the resurrection, it is not determined, neither in the Old nor New

Testament, by any note of situation; but only by the company: as that it

shall be, where such wicked men were, as God in former times, in

extraordinary and miraculous manner, had destroyed from off the face of

the earth: [Sidenote: Tartarus.] as for example, that they are _in

Inferno_, in _Tartarus_, or in the bottomless pit; because Corah,

Dathan, and Abiron, were swallowed up alive into the earth. Not that the

writers of the Scripture would have us believe, there could be in the

globe of the earth, which is not only finite, but also, compared to the

height of the stars, of no considerable magnitude, a pit without a

bottom, that is, a hole of infinite depth, such as the Greeks in their

_demonology_, (that is to say, in their doctrine concerning _demons_),

and after them the Romans, called _Tartarus_; of which Virgil (_Æn._ vi.

578, 579) says,

Bis patet in præceps tantum, tenditque sub umbras,

Quantus ad ætherium cœli suspectus Olympum:

for that is a thing the proportion of earth to heaven cannot bear: but

that we should believe them there, indefinitely, where those men are, on

whom God inflicted that exemplary punishment.

[Sidenote: The congregation of giants.]

Again, because those mighty men of the earth, that lived in the time of

Noah, before the flood, (which the Greeks call _heroes_, and the

Scripture _giants_, and both say were begotten by copulation of the

children of God with the children of men,) were for their wicked life

destroyed by the general deluge; the place of the damned, is therefore

also sometimes marked out, by the company of those deceased giants; as

_Proverbs_ xxi. 16, _The man that wandereth out of the way of

understanding, shall remain in the congregation of the giants_; and

_Job_ xxvi. 5, _Behold the giants groan under water, and they that dwell

with them_. Here the place of the damned is under the water. And

_Isaiah_ xiv. 9, _Hell is troubled how to meet thee_ (that is, the King

of Babylon) _and will displace the giants for thee_: and here again the

place of the damned, if the sense be literal, is to be under water.

[Sidenote: Lake of fire.] Thirdly, because the cities of Sodom and

Gomorrah, by the extraordinary wrath of God, were consumed for their

wickedness with fire and brimstone, and together with them the country

about made a stinking bituminous lake: the place of the damned is

sometimes expressed by fire, and a fiery lake, as in the _Apocalypse_,

xxi. 8, _But the timorous, incredulous, and abominable, and murderers,

and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall

have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; which

is the second death_. So that it is manifest, that hell fire, which is

here expressed by metaphor from the real fire of Sodom, signifieth not

any certain kind or place of torment; but is to be taken indefinitely,

for destruction, as it is in _Rev._ xx. 14, where it is said, that

_death and hell were cast into the lake of fire_; that is to say, were

abolished and destroyed; as if after the day of judgment, there shall be

no more dying, nor no more going into hell; that is, no more going to

_Hades_, (from which word perhaps our word Hell is derived,) which is

the same with no more dying.

[Sidenote: Utter darkness.]

Fourthly, from the plague of darkness inflicted on the Egyptians, of

which it is written (_Exod._ x. 23) _They saw not one another, neither

rose any man from his place for three days; but all the children of

Israel had light in their dwellings_; the place of the wicked after

judgment, is called _utter darkness_, or, as it is in the original,

_darkness without_. And so it is expressed (_Matth._ xxii. 13) where the

king commanded his servants, _to bind hand and foot the man that had not

on his wedding garment, and to cast him out_, εἰς τὸ σκοτος τὸ ἐξώτερον,

_into external darkness_, or _darkness without_: which though translated

_utter darkness_, does not signify _how great_, but _where_ that

darkness is to be; namely, _without the habitation_ of God’s elect.

[Sidenote: Gehenna, and Tophet.]

Lastly, whereas there was a place near Jerusalem, called the _Valley of

the Children of Hinnon_; in a part whereof, called _Tophet_, the Jews

had committed most grievous idolatry, sacrificing their children to the

idol Moloch; and wherein also God had afflicted his enemies with most

grievous punishments; and wherein Josiah had burned the priests of

Moloch upon their own altars, as appeareth at large in the 2nd of

_Kings_, chap. xxiii.: the place served afterwards to receive the filth

and garbage which was carried thither out of the city; and there used to

be fires made from time to time, to purify the air, and take away the

stench of carrion. From this abominable place, the Jews used ever after

to call the place of the damned, by the name of _Gehenna_, or _Valley of

Hinnon_. And this _Gehenna_, is that word which is usually now

translated HELL; and from the fires from time to time there burning, we

have the notion of _everlasting_ and _unquenchable fire_.

[Sidenote: Of the literal sense of the Scripture concerning hell.]

Seeing now there is none, that so interprets the Scripture, as that

after the day of judgment, the wicked are all eternally to be punished

in the Valley of Hinnon; or that they shall so rise again, as to be ever

after under ground or under water; or that after the resurrection, they

shall no more see one another, nor stir from one place to another: it

followeth, methinks, very necessarily, that that which is thus said

concerning hell fire, is spoken metaphorically; and that therefore there

is a proper sense to be enquired after, (for of all metaphors there is

some real ground, that may be expressed in proper words,) both of the

_place_ of _hell_, and the nature of _hellish torments_, and

_tormenters_.

[Sidenote: Satan, Devil, not proper names, but appellatives.]

And first for the tormenters, we have their nature and properties,

exactly and properly delivered by the names of, _the Enemy_, or _Satan_;

_the Accuser_, or _Diabolus_; _the Destroyer_, or _Abaddon_. Which

significant names, _Satan_, _Devil_, _Abaddon_, set not forth to us any

individual person, as proper names use to do; but only an office, or

quality; and are therefore appellatives; which ought not to have been

left untranslated, as they are in the Latin and modern Bibles; because

thereby they seem to be proper names of _demons_; and men are the more

easily seduced to believe the doctrine of devils; which at that time was

the religion of the Gentiles, and contrary to that of Moses and of

Christ.

And because by the _Enemy_, the _Accuser_, and _Destroyer_, is meant the

enemy of them that shall be in the kingdom of God; therefore if the

kingdom of God after the resurrection, be upon the earth, as in the

former chapter I have shown by Scripture it seems to be, the Enemy and

his kingdom must be on earth also. For so also was it, in the time

before the Jews had deposed God. For God’s kingdom was in Palestine; and

the nations round about, were the kingdoms of the Enemy; and

consequently by _Satan_, is meant any earthly enemy of the Church.

[Sidenote: Torments of hell.]

The torments of hell, are expressed sometimes, by _weeping_, and

_gnashing of teeth_, as _Matth._ viii. 12. Sometimes by _the worm of

conscience_; as _Isaiah_ lxvi. 24, and _Mark_ ix. 44, 46, 48: sometimes,

by fire, as in the place now quoted, _where the worm dieth not, and the

fire is not quenched_, and many places beside: sometimes by _shame and

contempt_, as _Dan._ xii. 2, _And many of them that sleep in the dust of

the earth, shall awake; some to everlasting life; and some to shame, and

everlasting contempt_. All which places design metaphorically a grief

and discontent of mind, from the sight of that eternal felicity in

others, which they themselves through their own incredulity and

disobedience have lost. And because such felicity in others, is not

sensible but by comparison with their own actual miseries; it followeth

that they are to suffer such bodily pains, and calamities, as are

incident to those, who not only live under evil and cruel governors, but

have also for enemy the eternal king of the saints, God Almighty. And

amongst these bodily pains, is to be reckoned also to every one of the

wicked a second death. For though the Scripture be clear for an

universal resurrection; yet we do not read, that to any of the reprobate

is promised an eternal life. For whereas St. Paul (_1 Cor._ xv. 42, 43)

to the question concerning what bodies men shall rise with again, saith,

that _The body is sown in corruption, and is raised in incorruption; it

is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it

is raised in power_. Glory and power cannot be applied to the bodies of

the wicked: nor can the name of _second death_ be applied to those that

can never die but once: and although in metaphorical speech, a

calamitous life everlasting, may be called an everlasting death, yet it

cannot well be understood of a _second death_.

The fire prepared for the wicked, is an everlasting fire: that is to

say, the estate wherein no man can be without torture, both of body and

mind, after the resurrection, shall endure for ever; and in that sense

the fire shall be unquenchable, and the torments everlasting: but it

cannot thence be inferred, that he who shall be cast into that fire, or

be tormented with those torments, shall endure and resist them so as to

be eternally burnt, and tortured, and yet never be destroyed, nor die.

And though there be many places that affirm everlasting fire and

torments, into which men may be cast successively one after another as

long as the world lasts, yet I find none that affirm there shall be an

eternal life therein of any individual person; but to the contrary, an

everlasting death, which is the second death: (_Rev._ xx. 13, 14) _For

after death and the grave shall have delivered up the dead which were in

them, and every man be judged according to his works; death and the

grave shall also be cast into the lake of fire. This is the second

death._ Whereby it is evident that there is to be a second death of

every one that shall be condemned at the day of judgment, after which he

shall die no more.

[Sidenote: The joys of life eternal, and salvation, the same thing.]

[Sidenote: Salvation from sin, and from misery, all one.]

The joys of life eternal, are in Scripture comprehended all under the

name of SALVATION, or _being saved_. To be saved, is to be secured,

either respectively, against special evils, or absolutely, against all

evils, comprehending want, sickness, and death itself. And because man

was created in a condition immortal, not subject to corruption, and

consequently to nothing that tendeth to the dissolution of his nature;

and fell from that happiness by the sin of Adam; it followeth, that to

be _saved_ from sin, is to be saved from all the evil and calamities

that sin hath brought upon us. And therefore in the holy Scripture,

remission of sin, and salvation from death and misery, is the same

thing, as it appears by the words of our Saviour, who having cured a man

sick of the palsy, by saying, (_Matth._ ix. 2) _Son be of good cheer,

thy sins be forgiven thee_; and knowing that the Scribes took for

blasphemy, that a man should pretend to forgive sins, asked them (verse

5) _whether it were easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or, Arise

and walk_; signifying thereby, that it was all one, as to the saving of

the sick, to say, _Thy sins are forgiven_, and _Arise and walk_; and

that he used that form of speech, only to shew he had power to forgive

sins. And it is besides evident in reason, that since death and misery

were the punishments of sin, the discharge of sin must also be a

discharge of death and misery; that is to say, salvation absolute, such

as the faithful are to enjoy after the day of judgment, by the power and

favour of Jesus Christ, who for that cause is called our SAVIOUR.

Concerning particular salvations, such as are understood, (_1 Sam._ xiv.

39) as the _Lord liveth that saveth Israel_, that is, from their

temporary enemies, and (_2 Sam._ xxii. 3) _Thou art my Saviour, thou

savest me from violence_; and, (_2 Kings_ xiii. 5) _God gave the

Israelites a Saviour, and so they were delivered from the hand of the

Assyrians_, and the like, I need say nothing; there being neither

difficulty, nor interest to corrupt the interpretation of texts of that

kind.

[Sidenote: The place of eternal salvation.]

But concerning the general salvation, because it must be in the kingdom

of heaven, there is great difficulty concerning the place. On one side,

by _kingdom_, which is an estate ordained by men for their perpetual

security against enemies and want, it seemeth that this salvation should

be on earth. For by salvation is set forth unto us, a glorious reign of

our king, by conquest; not a safety by escape: and therefore there where

we look for salvation, we must look also for triumph; and before

triumph, for victory; and before victory, for battle; which cannot well

be supposed, shall be in heaven. But how good soever this reason may be,

I will not trust to it, without very evident places of Scripture. The

state of salvation is described at large, _Isaiah_ xxxiii. 20, 21, 22,

23, 24:

_Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities; thine eyes shall see

Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down;

not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any

of the cords thereof be broken._

_But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and

streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant

ship pass thereby._

_For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our law-giver, the Lord is our

king, he will save us._

_Thy tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen their mast;

they could not spread the sail: then is the prey of a great spoil

divided; the lame take the prey:_

_And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick; the people that shall

dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity._

In which words we have the place from whence salvation is to proceed,

_Jerusalem, a quiet habitation_; the eternity of it, _a tabernacle that

shall not be taken down, &c_; the Saviour of it, _the Lord, their judge,

their law-giver, their king, he will save us; the salvation, the Lord

shall be to them as a broad moat of swift waters, &c_; the condition of

their enemies, _their tacklings are loose, their masts weak, the lame

shall take the spoil of them_; the condition of the saved, _the

inhabitant shall not say, I am sick_: and lastly, all this is

comprehended in forgiveness of sin, _the people that dwell therein shall

be forgiven their iniquity_. By which it is evident, that salvation

shall be on earth, then, when God shall reign, at the coming again of

Christ, in Jerusalem; and from Jerusalem shall proceed the salvation of

the Gentiles that shall be received into God’s kingdom: as is also more

expressly declared by the same prophet, (_Isaiah_ lxvi. 20, 21), _And

they_ (that is the Gentiles who had any Jew in bondage) _shall bring all

your brethren, for an offering to the Lord, out of all nations, upon

horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift

beasts, to my holy mountain, Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children

of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the

Lord. And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, saith

the Lord._ Whereby it is manifest, that the chief seat of God’s kingdom,

which is the place from whence the salvation of us that were Gentiles

shall proceed, shall be Jerusalem: and the same is also confirmed by our

Saviour in his discourse with the woman of Samaria, concerning the place

of God’s worship; to whom he saith (_John_ iv. 22) that the Samaritans

worshipped they knew not what, but the Jews worshipped what they knew,

_for salvation is of the Jews_ (_ex Judæis_, that is, begins at the

Jews): as if he should say, you worship God, but know not by whom he

will save you, as we do, that know it shall be by one of the tribe of

Judah; a Jew, not a Samaritan. And therefore also the woman not

impertinently answered him again, _We know the Messias shall come_. So

that which our Saviour saith, _Salvation is from the Jews_, is the same

that Paul says (_Rom._ i. 16, 17) _The Gospel is the power of God to

salvation to every one that believeth: to the Jew first, and also to the

Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to

faith_; from the faith of the Jew to the faith of the Gentile. In the

like sense the prophet Joel describing the day of Judgment, (chap. ii.

30, 31) that God would _shew wonders in heaven, and in earth, blood, and

fire, and pillars of smoke; the sun shall be turned to darkness, and the

moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come_: he

addeth, (verse 32) _and it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call

upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in

Jerusalem shall be salvation._ And _Obadiah_, (verse 17) saith the same,

_Upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance; and there shall be holiness, and

the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions_, that is the

possessions of the _heathen_, which _possessions_, he expresseth more

particularly in the following verses, by the _mount of Esau_, the _Land

of the Philistines_, the _fields of Ephraim_, of _Samaria_, _Gilead_,

and the _cities of the south_, and concludes with these words, _the

kingdom shall be the Lord’s_. All these places are for salvation, and

the kingdom of God, after the day of judgment, upon earth. On the other

side, I have not found any text that can probably be drawn, to prove any

ascension of the saints into heaven; that is to say, into any _cœlum

empyreum_, or other ætherial region; saving that it is called the

kingdom of Heaven: which name it may have, because God, that was king of

the Jews, governed them by his commands, sent to Moses by angels from

heaven; and after the revolt, sent his Son from heaven to reduce them to

their obedience; and shall send him thence again to rule both them, and

all other faithful men, from the day of judgment, everlastingly: or from

that, that the throne of this our great king is in heaven; whereas the

earth is but his footstool. But that the subjects of God should have any

place as high as his throne, or higher than his footstool, it seemeth

not suitable to the dignity of a king, nor can I find any evident text

for it in Holy Scripture.

[Sidenote: The world to come.]

From this that hath been said of the kingdom of God, and of salvation,

it is not hard to interpret what is meant by the WORLD TO COME. There

are three worlds mentioned in Scripture, the _old world_, the _present

world_, and the _world to come_. Of the first, St. Peter speaks, (_2

Pet._ ii. 5) _If God spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth

person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing the flood upon the world

of the ungodly, &c._ So the _first world_, was from Adam to the general

flood. Of the present world, our Saviour speaks (_John_ xviii. 36) _My

kingdom is not of this world_. For he came only to teach men the way of

salvation, and to renew the kingdom of his Father, by his doctrine. Of

the world to come, St. Peter speaks (_2 Pet._ iii. 13) _Nevertheless we

according to his promise look for new heavens, and a new earth_. This is

that WORLD, wherein Christ coming down from heaven in the clouds, with

great power, and glory, shall send his angels, and shall gather together

his elect, from the four winds, and from the uttermost parts of the

earth, and thenceforth reign over them, under his Father, everlastingly.

[Sidenote: Redemption.]

_Salvation_ of a sinner, supposeth a precedent REDEMPTION; for he that

is once guilty of sin, is obnoxious to the penalty of the same; and must

pay, or some other for him, such ransom as he that is offended, and has

him in his power, shall require. And seeing the person offended, is

Almighty God, in whose power are all things; such ransom is to be paid

before salvation can be acquired, as God hath been pleased to require.

By this ransom, is not intended a satisfaction for sin, equivalent to

the offence; which no sinner for himself, nor righteous man can ever be

able to make for another: the damage a man does to another, he may make

amends for by restitution or recompense; but sin cannot be taken away by

recompense; for that were to make the liberty to sin, a thing vendible.

But sins may be pardoned to the repentant, either _gratis_, or upon such

penalty as God is pleased to accept. That which God usually accepted in

the Old Testament, was some sacrifice or oblation. To forgive sin is not

an act of injustice, though the punishment have been threatened. Even

amongst men, though the promise of good, bind the promiser; yet threats,

that is to say, promises of evil, bind them not; much less shall they

bind God, who is infinitely more merciful than men. Our Saviour Christ

therefore to _redeem_ us, did not in that sense satisfy for the sins of

men, as that his death, of its own virtue, could make it unjust in God

to punish sinners with eternal death; but did make that sacrifice and

oblation of himself, at his first coming, which God was pleased to

require for the salvation, at his second coming, of such as in the

meantime should repent, and believe in him. And though this act of our

_redemption_, be not always in Scripture called a _sacrifice_, and

_oblation_, but sometimes a _price_; yet by _price_ we are not to

understand anything, by the value whereof, he could claim right to a

pardon for us, from his offended Father; but that price which God the

Father was pleased in mercy to demand.

-------

CHAPTER XXXIX.

OF THE SIGNIFICATION IN SCRIPTURE OF

THE WORD CHURCH.

[Sidenote: Church the Lord’s house.]

The word Church, (_Ecclesia_) signifieth in the books of Holy Scripture

divers things. Sometimes, though not often, it is taken for _God’s

house_, that is to say, for a temple, wherein Christians assembled to

perform holy duties, publicly, as (_1 Cor._ xiv. 34) _Let your women

keep silence in the Churches_: but this is metaphorically put for the

congregation there assembled; and hath been since used for the edifice

itself, to distinguish between the temples of Christians and idolaters.

The Temple of Jerusalem was _God’s house_, and the house of prayer; and

so is any edifice dedicated by Christians to the worship of Christ,

_Christ’s house_: and therefore the Greek fathers call it Κυριακὴ, _the

Lord’s house_: and thence in our language it came to be called _kyrke_,

and _church_.

[Sidenote: _Ecclesia_, properly what.]

Church, when not taken for a house, signifieth the same that _ecclesia_

signified in the Grecian commonwealth, that is to say, a congregation,

or an assembly of citizens, called forth to hear the magistrate speak

unto them; and which in the commonwealth of Rome was called _concio_: as

he that spake was called _ecclesiastes_, and _concionator_. And when

they were called forth by lawful authority, (_Acts_ xix. 39) it was

_Ecclesia legitima_, a _lawful Church_, ἔννομος ἐκκλησία. But when they

were excited by tumultuous and seditious clamour, then it was a Confused

Church, ἐκκλησία συγκεχυμένη.

It is taken also sometimes for the men that have right to be of the

congregation, though not actually assembled, that is to say, for the

whole multitude of Christian men, how far soever they be dispersed: as

(_Acts_ viii. 3) where it is said, that _Saul made havoc of the Church_:

and in this sense is Christ said to be the head of the Church. And

sometimes for a certain part of Christians, as (_Col._ iv. 15) _Salute

the Church that is in his house_. Sometimes also for the elect only; as

(_Eph._ v. 27) _A glorious Church, without spot, or wrinkle, holy, and

without blemish_; which is meant of the _Church triumphant_, or _Church

to come_. Sometimes, for a congregation assembled of professors of

Christianity, whether their profession be true or counterfeit; as it is

understood, (_Matth._ xviii. 17) where it is said, _Tell it to the

Church; and if he neglect to hear the Church, let him be to thee as a

Gentile, or publican_.

[Sidenote: In what sense the church is one person.]

[Sidenote: Church defined.]

And in this last sense only it is that the _Church_ can be taken for one

person; that is to say, that it can be said to have power to will, to

pronounce, to command, to be obeyed, to make laws, or to do any other

action whatsoever. For without authority from a lawful congregation,

whatsoever act be done in a concourse of people, it is the particular

act of every one of those that were present, and gave their aid to the

performance of it; and not the act of them all in gross, as of one body;

much less the act of them that were absent, or that being present, were

not willing it should be done. According to this sense, I define a

CHURCH to be, _a company of men professing Christian religion, united in

the person of one sovereign, at whose command they ought to assemble,

and without whose authority they ought not to assemble_. And because in

all commonwealths, that assembly, which is without warrant from the

civil sovereign, is unlawful; that Church also, which is assembled in

any commonwealth that hath forbidden them to assemble, is an unlawful

assembly.

[Sidenote: A Christian commonwealth and a church all one.]

It followeth also, that there is on earth, no such universal Church, as

all Christians are bound to obey; because there is no power on earth, to

which all other commonwealths are subject. There are Christians, in the

dominions of several princes and states; but every one of them is

subject to that commonwealth, whereof he is himself a member; and

consequently, cannot be subject to the commands of any other person. And

therefore a Church, such a one as is capable to command, to judge,

absolve, condemn, or do any other act, is the same thing with a civil

commonwealth, consisting of Christian men; and is called a _civil

state_, for that the subjects of it are _men_; and a _Church_, for that

the subjects thereof are _Christians_. _Temporal_ and _spiritual_

government, are but two words brought into the world, to make men see

double, and mistake their _lawful sovereign_. It is true, that the

bodies of the faithful, after the resurrection, shall be not only

spiritual, but eternal; but in this life they are gross, and

corruptible. There is therefore no other government in this life,

neither of state, nor religion, but temporal; nor teaching of any

doctrine, lawful to any subject, which the governor both of the state,

and of the religion forbiddeth to be taught. And that governor must be

one; or else there must needs follow faction and civil war in the

commonwealth, between the _Church_ and _State_; between _spiritualists_

and _temporalists_; between the _sword of justice_, and the _shield of

faith_: and, which is more, in every Christian man’s own breast, between

the _Christian_, and the _man_. The doctors of the Church, are called

pastors; so also are civil sovereigns. But if pastors be not subordinate

one to another, so as that there may be one chief pastor, men will be

taught contrary doctrines; whereof both may be, and one must be false.

Who that one chief pastor is, according to the law of nature, hath been

already shown; namely, that it is the civil sovereign: and to whom the

Scripture hath assigned that office, we shall see in the chapters

following.

-------

CHAPTER XL.

OF THE RIGHTS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD, IN

ABRAHAM, MOSES, THE HIGH-PRIESTS, AND

THE KINGS OF JUDAH.

[Sidenote: The sovereign right of Abraham.]

The father of the faithful, and first in the kingdom of God by covenant,

was Abraham. For with him was the covenant first made; wherein he

obliged himself, and his seed after him, to acknowledge and obey the

commands of God; not only such, as he could take notice of, (as moral

laws,) by the light of nature; but also such, as God should in special

manner deliver to him by dreams and visions. For as to the moral law,

they were already obliged, and needed not have been contracted withal,

by promise of the land of Canaan. Nor was there any contract, that could

add to, or strengthen the obligation, by which both they, and all men

else were bound naturally to obey God Almighty: and therefore the

covenant which Abraham made with God, was to take for the commandment of

God, that which in the name of God was commanded him in a dream, or

vision; and to deliver it to his family, and cause them to observe the

same.

[Sidenote: Abraham had the sole power of ordering the religion of his

own people.]

In this contract of God with Abraham, we may observe three points of

important consequence in the government of God’s people. First, that at

the making of this covenant, God spake only to Abraham; and therefore

contracted not with any of his family, or seed, otherwise than as their

wills, which make the essence of all covenants, were before the contract

involved in the will of Abraham; who was therefore supposed to have had

a lawful power, to make them perform all that he covenanted for them.

According whereunto (_Gen._ xviii. 18, 19) God saith, _All the nations

of the earth shall be blessed in him; for I know him that he will

command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep

the way of the Lord_. From whence may be concluded this first point,

that they to whom God hath not spoken immediately, are to receive the

positive commandments of God, from their sovereign; as the family and

seed of Abraham did from Abraham their father, and Lord, and civil

sovereign. And consequently in every commonwealth, they who have no

supernatural revelation to the contrary, ought to obey the laws of their

own sovereign, in the external acts and profession of religion. As for

the inward _thought_, and _belief_ of men, which human governors can

take no notice of, (for God only knoweth the heart), they are not

voluntary, nor the effect of the laws, but of the unrevealed will and of

the power of God; and consequently fall not under obligation.

[Sidenote: No pretence of private spirit against the religion of

Abraham.]

From whence proceedeth another point, that it was not unlawful for

Abraham, when any of his subjects should pretend private vision or

spirit, or other revelation from God, for the countenancing of any

doctrine which Abraham should forbid, or when they followed or adhered

to any such pretender, to punish them; and consequently that it is

lawful now for the sovereign to punish any man that shall oppose his

private spirit against the laws: for he hath the same place in the

commonwealth, that Abraham had in his own family.

[Sidenote: Abraham sole judge and interpreter of what God spake.]

There ariseth also from the same, a third point; that as none but

Abraham in his family, so none but the sovereign in a Christian

commonwealth, can take notice what is, or what is not the word of God.

For God spake only to Abraham; and it was he only, that was able to know

what God said, and to interpret the same to his family: and therefore

also, they that have the place of Abraham in a commonwealth, are the

only interpreters of what God hath spoken.

[Sidenote: The authority of Moses whereon grounded.]

The same covenant was renewed with Isaac; and afterwards with Jacob; but

afterwards no more, till the Israelites were freed from the Egyptians,

and arrived at the foot of Mount Sinai: and then it was renewed by

Moses, (as I have said before, chap. xxxv.) in such manner, as they

became from that time forward the peculiar kingdom of God; whose

lieutenant was Moses, for his own time: and the succession to that

office was settled upon Aaron, and his heirs after him, to be to God a a

sacerdotal kingdom for ever.

By this constitution, a kingdom is acquired to God. But seeing Moses had

no authority to govern the Israelites, as a successor to the right of

Abraham, because he could not claim it by inheritance; it appeareth not

as yet, that the people were obliged to take him for God’s lieutenant,

longer than they believed that God spake unto him. And therefore his

authority, notwithstanding the covenant they made with God, depended yet

merely upon the opinion they had of his sanctity, and of the reality of

his conferences with God, and the verity of his miracles; which opinion

coming to change, they were no more obliged to take anything for the law

of God, which he propounded to them in God’s name. We are therefore to

consider, what other ground there was, of their obligation to obey him.

For it could not be the commandment of God that could oblige them;

because God spake not to them immediately, but by the mediation of Moses

himself: and our Saviour saith of himself, (_John_ v. 31) _If I bear

witness of myself, my witness is not true_; much less if Moses bear

witness of himself, especially in a claim of kingly power over God’s

people, ought his testimony to be received. His authority therefore, as

the authority of all other princes, must be grounded on the consent of

the people, and their promise to obey him. And so it was: for _the

people_ (_Exod._ xx. 18, 19) _when they saw the thunderings, and the

lightenings, and the noise of the trumpets, and the mountain smoking,

removed, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, speak thou with

us, and we will hear, but let not God speak with us lest we die._ Here

was their promise of obedience; and by this it was they obliged

themselves to obey whatsoever he should deliver unto them for the

commandment of God.

[Sidenote: Moses was, under God, sovereign of the Jews all his own time,

though Aaron had the priesthood.]

And notwithstanding the covenant constituted a sacerdotal kingdom, that

is to say, a kingdom hereditary to Aaron; yet that is to be understood

of the succession after Moses should be dead. For whosoever ordereth and

establisheth the policy, as first founder of a commonwealth, be it

monarchy, aristocracy, or democracy, must needs have sovereign power

over the people all the while he is doing of it. And that Moses had that

power all his own time, is evidently affirmed in the Scripture. First,

in the text last before cited, because the people promised obedience,

not to Aaron, but to him. Secondly, (_Exod._ xxiv. 1, 2) _And God said

unto Moses, Come up unto the Lord, thou and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and

seventy of the Elders of Israel. And Moses alone shall come near the

Lord, but they shall not come nigh, neither shall the people go up with

him._ By which it is plain, that Moses, who was alone called up to God,

(and not Aaron, nor the other priests, nor the seventy elders, nor the

people who were forbidden to come up,) was alone he, that represented to

the Israelites the person of God, that is to say, was their sole

sovereign under God. And though afterwards it be said (verses 9, 10)

_Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the

elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel, and there was under

his feet, as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone &c_; yet this was

not till after Moses had been with God before, and had brought to the

people the words which God had said to him. He only went for the

business of the people; the others, as the nobles of his retinue, were

admitted for honour to that special grace, which was not allowed to the

people; which was, as in the verse after appeareth, to see God and live,

_God laid not his hand upon them, they saw God and did eat and drink_,

that is, did live: but did not carry any commandment from him to the

people. Again, it is everywhere said, _the Lord spake unto Moses_, as in

all other occasions of government, so also in the ordering of the

ceremonies of religion, contained in chapters xxv. xxvi. xxvii. xxviii.

xxix. xxx. and xxxi. of _Exodus_, and throughout _Leviticus_: to Aaron

seldom. The calf that Aaron made, Moses threw into the fire. Lastly, the

question of the authority of Aaron, by occasion of his and Miriam’s

mutiny against Moses, was (_Numb._ xii.) judged by God himself for

Moses. So also in the question between Moses and the people, who had the

right of governing the people, when Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, and two

hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, _gathered themselves

together_ (_Numb._ xvi. 3) _against Moses, and against Aaron, and said

unto them, ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are

holy, every one of them, and the Lord is amongst them, why lift you up

yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?_ God caused the earth to

swallow Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, with their wives and children, alive,

and consumed those two hundred and fifty princes with fire. Therefore

neither Aaron, nor the people, nor any aristocracy of the chief princes

of the people, but Moses alone had next under God the sovereignty over

the Israelites: and that not only in causes of civil policy, but also of

religion: for Moses only spake with God, and therefore only could tell

the people what it was that God required at their hands. No man upon

pain of death might be so presumptuous as to approach the mountain where

God talked with Moses. _Thou shalt set bounds_ (saith the Lord, _Exod._

xix. 12) _to the people round about, and say, Take heed to yourselves

that you go not up into the Mount, or touch the border of it; whosoever

toucheth the Mount shall surely be put to death_. And again (verse 21)

_Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to

gaze_. Out of which we may conclude, that whosoever in a Christian

commonwealth holdeth the place of Moses, is the sole messenger of God,

and interpreter of his commandments. And according hereunto, no man

ought in the interpretation of the Scripture to proceed further than the

bounds which are set by their several sovereigns. For the Scriptures,

since God now speaketh in them, are the Mount Sinai; the bounds whereof

are the laws of them that represent God’s person on earth. To look upon

them, and therein to behold the wondrous works of God, and learn to fear

him, is allowed; but to interpret them, that is, to pry into what God

saith to him whom he appointeth to govern under him, and make themselves

judges whether he govern as God commandeth him, or not, is to transgress

the bounds God hath set us, and to gaze upon God irreverently.

[Sidenote: All spirits were subordinate to the spirit of Moses.]